Spotlight
TRANSPORT: A TIME FOR BIG IDEAS
David Blunkett / Sir John Armitt / Maria Caulfield MP
01 Spotlight transport cover.indd 1
11/11/2016 12:15:09
CONTENTS
The engine
of progress
W
COVER ILLUSTRATION BY SAM FALCONER
ashington, DC may be at risk of losing its status as
Capital of the Free World, but it is still a leader in traffic
jams. The US capital topped the list of the country’s
most gridlocked cities in the 2015 Urban Mobility
Scorecard, which found that Washington’s commuters
spend an average of 82 hours per year going absolutely nowhere in their
vehicles. Nationwide, the US spends nearly 7 billion unnecessary hours
in its cars, burning 3 billion gallons of fuel. Sitting in traffic, listening to
the radio, Americans burned almost twice as much petrol in 2015 as
Bangladesh – a country of 157 million people – uses in a year.
Here in the UK, while we do not waste nearly so much fuel, we waste
time. According to the TUC’s most recent survey, around 10 per cent of
the UK workforce spends more than two hours per day travelling to and
from work. In 2014, a study of 60,000 people by the Office for National
Statistics found that longer commutes had a demonstrably negative
impact on commuters’ wellbeing.
Specific areas of our transport infrastructure, including the rail routes
currently underserving areas such as Lewes and the air pollution and
congestion in UK cities, clearly need decisive action. At the larger scale,
however, it is worth acknowledging that there is no legislating against
inefficiency of the magnitude found in current systems. If, as predicted
by the UN, 66 per cent of the world’s population is to live in cities by
2050, only very large and very bold ideas will provide the infrastructure
future generations will need. The first people to board the 200-metrelong Crossrail trains in 2018 will get a sense of the new scale that must
apply to all thinking about transport: it is no longer something that can
simply be upgraded. Only huge amounts of confidence and ingenuity
will get the future moving faster than the past.
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First published as a supplement to the
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4 / Lord Blunkett
The former Home Secretary on
the huge employment potential
infrastructure projects offer
8 / Sir John Armitt
The country’s pre-eminent
civil engineer on the grand
ambition of the National
Infrastructure Assessment
14 / Maria Caulfield MP
The Lewes MP’s constituents
are the country’s most
frustrated commuters
18 / The new age of airships
The world’s largest aircraft
promises zero-carbon flights
22 / The school run
The need for better provision in
both rural and urban settings
30 / James Thornton
The environmental lawyer has
twice defeated the government
in court on air pollution
Transport | Spotlight | 3
03 Contents.indd 3
30/11/2016 16:07:30
LORD BLUNKETT
INFRASTRUCTURE AND EMPLOYMENT
Heathrow
expansion
will broaden
our horizons
Investment
in national
infrastructure
will lead to mass
employment
opportunities,
according to
David Blunkett
SHUTTERSTOCK / ALICE-PHOTO
F
inally, the government has given a
green light to Heathrow expansion.
This project, along with the
Thames Tideway Tunnel, Crossrail 2 and
HS2 will herald a new spirit of growth
and development not seen in this
country since Victorian times.
To 16-year-olds starting to look at
career opportunities today, this push for
infrastructure growth could be
transformational for their future. Over
the next few years, they will have the
opportunity to gain apprenticeships
and secure jobs in several of those
projects. In 10 to 15 years they could be
part of the most advanced workforce in
the world, sought after by projects across
the globe looking for the level of
experience that UK infrastructure will
provide over the coming decade.
The job of the Heathrow Skills
Taskforce, which I chair, is to ensure
this vision becomes a reality and that
Heathrow is at its core. Our strategy will
ensure Heathrow’s expansion addresses
areas of current unemployment in
4 | Spotlight | Transport
04-06 David Blunkett.indd 4
11/11/2016 12:26:05
Transport | Spotlight | 5
04-06 David Blunkett.indd 5
11/11/2016 12:26:07
LORD BLUNKETT
INFRASTRUCTURE AND EMPLOYMENT
Bridging the
STEM skills
gap is crucial
London and the South East; but it must
do much more than this. We need to
ensure a legacy of skills creation that
will deliver UK-wide economic growth,
employment and infrastructure
improvements for decades ahead.
As a former Secretary of State for
Education and Employment, this
long-term vision is particularly
important to me. I joined the Taskforce
as Chair precisely because I have seen
too many lost opportunities where
expensive projects build up their teams,
and then leave them to waste. We
must ensure all our large-scale
infrastructure projects deliver benefits
beyond their individual construction
phases. This entails driving such projects
together, to dovetail timetables for
training, recruitment and employment
and for the benefit of small and mediumsized companies.
I’m very pleased to count on the
experience of the 13 members of the
Skills Taskforce, drawn from the fields
of employment, education and skills,
and youth social action. We will be
advised by additional representatives
from education organisations, who
will ensure our recommendations are
consistent with existing curriculums
and programmes.
Having had our inaugural meeting at
the end of October, the Taskforce is now
charting the number of infrastructure
projects underway or scheduled to be
delivered across the UK. Through
collaboration with these projects, we can
maximise the effectiveness and reach of
our skills and apprenticeship programmes.
We can learn from projects which are
seeing success, like Thames Tideway
and Crossrail 1 which offered substantial
routes to apprenticeship training.
Without this holistic approach, I
believe the delivery of these projects is at
risk. Instead of building a new kind of
workforce together, lack of cooperation
will lead us to compete over a limited
and shrinking pool of skilled workers.
Already, there is ever-widening skills
gap in STEM subjects, and a severe
shortage of UK candidates in fields like
engineering. Greater Manchester
Chamber of Commerce research released
earlier this year found Heathrow
expansion would require a 25 per cent
increase in construction workers alone.
Working together, we can also
ensure investments in the UK workforce
avoid overheating certain parts of our
economy and country. A decentralised
approach to procurement will be key in
spreading the regional benefits of each
infrastructure project.
In Heathrow’s case, 95 per cent of its
procurement spending will be with
the British supply chain, 60 per cent
of which will be outside of London.
Heathrow will engage early with its supply
chain to bring skills and apprenticeship
opportunities to regional procurement
hubs, where suppliers will manufacture,
pre-assemble and consolidate components
critical to the expansion project. This
will ensure young people across the UK
benefit from Heathrow’s investments.
Delivering infrastructure projects
of such a scale, and of such importance
as Heathrow expansion will not be easy.
In Heathrow’s case, the major demand
for employment will be in 2020/21
which requires urgent action to ensure
that measures are in place to turn
aspiration into meaningful results. This
clearly will be followed by a whole range
of employment possibilities way beyond
construction and civil engineering.
Getting this right is a challenge post
Brexit which we cannot afford to duck.
All those with positive ideas to turn
good intentions into practice will be
welcome to contribute, whether or not
they are not in agreement with the
go-ahead for the third runway.
In fact, Heathrow is one the UK’s
largest single site employers, a thriving
economy of its own where exporters,
businesspeople and travelers converge.
Labour requirements will not end
when the first plane lands on the
new runway – we need to build the
workforce that will run the UK’s hub
airport, its biggest port by value, and for
decades to come Our Taskforce will aim
to deliver that.
Lord Blunkett is the Chair of the Heathrow
Skills Taskforce
6 | Spotlight | Transport
04-06 David Blunkett.indd 6
11/11/2016 12:26:08
ADVERTORIAL
The road ahead:
driven by smart
data and safety
Lee Rushbrooke,
chief executive
of Colas, outlines
the future of the
country's highways
IN ASSOCIATION WITH
R
oads are about more than
getting from A to B; they
are key to connecting centres
of business and knowledge to
transport hubs, and supporting
the development of labour markets
and thriving communities. The
move towards more devolved
administrations provides opportunities
to address regional and local transport
issues with appropriate solutions that
can deliver improved and more
durable infrastructure.
With local roads making up 98 per
cent of highways in England and Wales,
and road maintenance expenditure
down by 16 per cent in the last year,
the private sector is key to helping
bridge funding gaps.
Colas has a local focus, informed
and supported by global expertise, and
as a group we invest heavily in R&D,
with 2000 engineers and technicians
future-proofing our infrastructure. Our
experience of investing in over 80 PPP
projects worldwide will be invaluable
– given the need to reconsider funding
options in the UK. We are responsible,
via our contracts with Highways
England, for around 23 per cent of
the strategic road network. The future
of this network is underpinned by
intelligent data sourced from a hidden
hive of digital processes delivering
greater safety and road use monitoring
that a few years ago would have
seemed the stuff of science fiction.
High-accuracy GPS and Internet
of Things connectivity permit realtime
uploading to the Datex II data interface
to warn and inform road users and
highways workers. Wireless worker
interconnection and instant alarm
technology help to prevent collisions.
Nationally and regionally, we don’t
just use roads nowadays – we read
them. But recording data is just the
beginning. Automatic monitoring
technology protects our workers
on-site. Colas’ Project Yellow system
uses thermal imaging cameras and
analytics software to send an audible
warning to operatives if a vehicle is
on a collision course within 150m.
The next step will be the delivery
of autonomous versions of these
systems, as part of a general
movement towards driverless vehicles
and greater safety, removing human
error and moving towards zero deaths
or injuries in roadworks.
We are also working on Smart
Motorway technology, with active
management of diversion routes
giving drivers real-time information
on diversion-impacted journey times
and better directions via portable
Variable Message Signs.
This creates a real-time window on
how diversion routes are working, and
crucial geosocial data for the travelling
public, local communities and
planners in the future.
Colas research is leading towards
sustainable energy creation, too.
Our new Wattway solar road surface
is at the forefront of this pioneering
activity, providing clean, renewable
electricity whilst being ultra-resilient,
yet lightweight. Wattway is just one
step towards a truly intelligent road
system that not only supports travel,
but contributes to energy creation and
the greater wellbeing of communities,
with self-powering signs, lights,
homes and even businesses.
International research serving
local communities with new
technology, new skills, new
investment and new partnerships –
this is the formula for the smart and
sustainable infrastructure future that
Colas is building.
For more information, visit:
www.colas.co.uk/statesman
Transport | Spotlight | 7
07 Colas adv.indd 7
11/11/2016 12:27:29
SIR JOHN ARMITT
THE FUTURE OF INFRASTRUCTURE
A project of unprecedented
size and scope, the National
Infrastructure Assessment
will lay the foundation of this
country’s future. Sir John Armitt
says the decisions being made
now will shape policy for
decades to come
The foundations
of tomorrow’s
Britain
O
ur national infrastructure is
enjoying a spell in the limelight.
Long overdue decisions have been
taken and senior ministers have signalled
their commitment to invest. In Crossrail
we are home to the largest development
in Europe; we lead the world in offshore
wind and HS2 is progressing from
conception to construction as fast as
anything in the Western world.
But we have been here before, and the
overall picture remains mixed. The UK’s
infrastructure ranks 24th in the world,
and decisions can still take decades.
This matters to each and every one of
our daily lives. From travelling to work,
to keeping in touch with friends and
family and powering and protecting our
homes, our national infrastructure
represents the networks and systems
that keep our country and communities
on track. When it fails the results range
from minor frustration to a catastrophic
breakdown of the order on which we rely.
So we must seize this moment to
secure a permanent shift in the way we
plan and deliver major projects in this
country. There is nothing to prevent the
UK from delivering world-class
infrastructure if we set about the task
with the seriousness and determination
it requires. This is precisely what the
National Infrastructure Commission
(NIC) intends to do.
In January 2017, the Commission – of
which I am Deputy Chair – will be placed
on a permanent footing as an executive
agency, operationally independent of
8 | Spotlight | Transport
08-10 Sir John Armitt.indd 8
11/11/2016 12:31:09
SHUTTERSTOCK / PAUL DANIELS
Light at the end of the tunnel: Crossrail aims
to bring an additional 1.5m people within
45 minutes of central London
We must
ensure our
industry is
future-proofed
government with complete discretion
to determine how we work and what
we recommend.
Already the Commission has
published detailed analysis and clear
advice across three landmark studies.
Our recommendations – to bring forth
a Smart Power revolution through
interconnection, storage and flexible
demand across our electricity network,
move forward with Crossrail 2 in London
and to create a HS3 network connecting
the great cities of the North – secured
more than £400m of investment
at Budget 2016, but government has
more to do to make these proposals
a reality.
The NIC takes its responsibility to
‘hold Ministers’ feet to the fire’ seriously.
If government is to open the way for a
better, more efficient electricity network
able to take advantage of the innovations
we describe then BEIS must move
forward with gusto, starting with the
publication of its long-promised, and
overdue, consultation.
In the North of England, all eyes are
on Transport for the North and the
next phase of their plan to make a High
Speed North a reality. The Department
for Transport and the Treasury must
continue to offer their support.
And in London the government’s
commitment to submit a Crossrail 2
hybrid Bill by Autumn 2019 will be
sorely tested if TL are not allowed
and encouraged to move forward with
the necessary preparation.
The National Infrastructure
Commission will monitor developments
closely. Where government gets it right
the Commission will say so, but be in
no doubt that we will make our voice
heard if progress is not made.
Individual projects like these,
however, represent only a small part
of what we do. Alongside new studies,
considering the infrastructure needed
to make a success of 5G and an assessment
of the strategic requirements of the
growth corridor stretching across
Cambridge, Milton Keynes and
Oxford, the National Infrastructure
Commission is undertaking a piece of
work unmatched for size and scope
anywhere in the world – the National
Infrastructure Assessment (NIA).
At its heart, the NIA asks a simple
question – what infrastructure will the
UK need over the next 30 years to remain
competitive, foster growth and ensure
high quality of life? Our task, is to inject
the rigorous analysis and strategic
thinking we need to plan and deliver
the infrastructure of the future.
How can infrastructure best support
growth, how should we decide what
we repair and what we rebuild, what
is affordable, who should pay for it
and how? These are the sorts of big
questions we need to answer if we are
to replace sporadic decision making with
a long-term strategy.
Transport | Spotlight | 9
08-10 Sir John Armitt.indd 9
11/11/2016 12:31:12
SIR JOHN ARMITT
THE FUTURE OF INFRASTRUCTURE
The UK
deserves
world-class
infrastructure
FLICKR / LUKES_PHOTOS
It is crucial that we enhance the connections
between the UK’s key regions with greater
High Speed infrastructure
For example, we can all see that the
inter-relationships between sectors like
energy and transport are not always as
clear as the walls which separate
Whitehall departments. A move to
electric vehicles would have enormous
implications for our power supply;
cooling our power supply may mean
dramatic new demands on our water
supply. Yet all too often our strategic
planning remains uncoordinated across,
and even within, government departments.
Our economic infrastructure is not a
series of discrete networks, but a system
of interlocking systems. For the first
time, the NIA will seek to assess and
plan for our future need by studying
and addressing those connections.
Underpinning that work will be an
assessment of the four key drivers of
the supply and demand of infrastructure
- broadly fluctuations in population,
the economy, the pace of technological
advance, and the impact of climate
change – and the scenarios over the
medium term that they suggest.
To give one example, we need to
understand how new technology will
allow us to manage capacity in transport
and energy and what that will mean for
our networks.
This is complex, technical work,
with dramatic real world consequences.
With a deeper understanding of the
trends which will shape our future,
policy makers will be better equipped
to ensure that improvements arrive
in plenty of time to head off the crises
we are all so desperate to avoid.
So developing the NIA will be an
enormous undertaking, but the prize
is greater still. A successful NIA will
stand as the cornerstone of a serious
and strategic long-term approach
to our infrastructure that will help
reduce unnecessary delay, costs and
congestion, making our lives easier and
our economy stronger.
World-class infrastructure can form
the basis on which the UK succeeds for
decades to come. Today, we have the
chance to turn that hope into a reality.
In the aftermath of the Brexit decision,
it is crucial that we sezie it.
10 | Spotlight | Transport
08-10 Sir John Armitt.indd 10
11/11/2016 12:31:15
ADVERTORIAL
MTR – Bringing a
fresh perspective
to UK rail
In Hong Kong, where there is no
separation of ownership between train
and track, MTR operates the trains and
manages the infrastructure for the
city’s metro system under a single
company. The Hong Kong metro
system is one of the busiest globally,
but still delivers 99.9 per cent of
passenger journeys on time, making it
one of the highest-performing
railways in the world.
Rail development spurs growth
The world's highestperforming railways
have lessons for
the UK, writes
Jeremy Long,
CEO of European
business at MTR
A
mong the critical investment
challenges the government will
face over the next few years,
there are few more pressing than
transport infrastructure, particularly
railway improvements, and the need
to meet housing demand.
An innovative approach is needed.
International experience shows how
private investment can help deliver rail
upgrades and provide more residential
and commercial space in a way that
minimises the burden on taxpayers.
As one of the world’s leading operators
of rail systems and a successful property
manager working in seven major cities
worldwide, MTR has first-hand
experience of this holistic approach to
rail and property development, and
the improved results it can deliver:
stronger integration, major station
developments, and growth.
Joined-up railways
IN ASSOCIATION WITH
Close collaboration of rail operation
and infrastructure is vital to ensure
that a railway runs as seamlessly as
possible and delivers the best possible
service for passengers.
On our London Overground and
TfL Rail services, for example, MTR
co-operates closely with Network Rail,
which ultimately allows us to deliver a
better service for passengers – as two
of the best performing railways in the
UK. With Network Rail devolving
to individual regional routes, the
industry needs to continue to look at
how to make this collaboration and
joint working even more effective. The
benefits could be significant.
The Government has an ambition
to build a million new homes by
2020 to address a chronic housing
shortage in the UK.
Again, international models
show clearly how more effective
development and commercial use of
stations could bring increased revenue
into the UK’s railways, which could be
used to fund new homes as well as rail
lines, extensions and upgrades to the
network, while reducing the burden
on fare payers and taxpayers.
MTR has led a number of ‘rail plus
property’ investments, particularly in
Hong Kong as well as Mainland China.
For example, MTR’s Shenzhen Metro
Longhua Line Property Development
will feature 1,698 residential units and
a shopping centre of about 10,000
square metres upon completion.
In order for this kind of
development to be realised in the UK,
the right commercial and asset
ownership environment is needed. In
particular, this involves introducing
and making use of mechanisms to
allow investors to share risks and
rewards with the public sector over
the longer-term.
There are transferable examples
from abroad that could play a key role
in helping the Government achieve its
aims of improving rail infrastructure
maximising value capture for the
taxpayer and building new homes in
Britain. The time is now for the
Government and the rail industry
to work together to bring new ideas
to the table, and we look forward
to taking part in this vital debate.
Transport | Spotlight | 11
11 MTR adv.indd 11
11/11/2016 12:32:29
ADVERTORIAL
Next stop:
the future
Atkins’ technical director
John McCarthy explains
how technology is set
to transform the
transport sector
T
IN ASSOCIATION WITH
he story of the UK’s transport
system – its roads, rail lines,
tunnels and canals – is one of
extraordinary feats of engineering. For
more than 150 years, communities,
industries and economies have been
built around them. But the future of the
transport network is much less clearly
defined. One thing, however, is certain:
much of the infrastructure that will
take us into the 21st century will be as
much in the Cloud as on the ground.
Reinforcing our physical connections
alone will not enable us to meet all of
the social and environmental challenges
we face. In 15 years, 60 per cent of the
world’s population will live in cities.
That will place enormous pressure on
our public transport infrastructure and
add vehicles to our already congested
roads. We must also act now to reduce
the impact that our transport system
has on the environment. The UK has
a legally binding obligation of an 80 per
cent reduction in carbon emissions by
2050 (compared with 1990 levels) and
meeting that ambitious target will
require a fundamental shift in the way
we connect people, places and goods.
For the first time, we have the
building blocks in place to do this.
Advances in technology and access
to a huge volume of data have given
us the tools we need to unlock new
opportunities. We can already check
live bus times or buy train tickets
online. But there is more to come.
Several private- and public-sector
providers in the UK are already
embracing a totally new way of
thinking about transport provision,
called ‘intelligent mobility’. Why
‘intelligent’? Because it uses data and
emerging technology to help provide
a more personal, efficient, safe and
sustainable network.
Intelligent mobility offers to the
travelling public:
A customer-centric design – one that
combines all transportation options and
presents them to the customer in a
simple and integrated manner. The
emphasis is on how to get successfully
from A to B rather than on being tied to
any individual transport mode or service.
A seamless experience – that connects
people with the right information at the
right time, and in real time. It provides
trusted travel information on demand,
across all devices, and enables people to
12 | Spotlight | Transport
12-13 Atkins adv.indd 12
11/11/2016 12:50:48
SHUTTERSTOCK / STEFANO CARNICCIO
manage their journey on the go.
Connected and autonomous vehicles
– an organised network of driverless
vehicles will offer greater connectivity
and autonomy, giving us the
opportunity to open up new business
models, and in doing so to provide
tailored services and connections that
are not available at present.
In order to achieve these goals,
fundamental to intelligent mobility
are data and intelligence, so that
operators can make the best possible
strategic decisions about the
performance of the network, and that
the network will exist in a resilient and
secure online environment.
At the heart of intelligent mobility
is the belief that the public transport
of the future will move away from
a ‘top-down’ menu of pre-defined
options, towards a reconfigurable
matrix of choice and flexibility.
Traditionally, public transport has
delivered a relatively inflexible
service to passengers. Train and bus
routes are fixed and everything runs
to a pre-determined timetable. The
traveller must work out how best to slot
themselves into these schedules. And
very often, the different services do not,
or cannot, ‘speak’ to one another – they
can only speak for the particular service
they offer.
Intelligent mobility shifts the focus,
to put people, their experience and
travel requirements at the centre of
provision. It aims to provide travellers
with the means and information to
create a seamless experience across all
modes of transport. Why is this
important? Because public transport
will remain critical for supplying
significant capacity for increasing
populations, especially in our towns
and cities.
It’s a big shift, and it can be hard to
conceptualise. But imagine… instead
of waking at a set time each work day,
arriving at the train station to find the
service is delayed and – when it does
arrive – there’s only standing room, a
different solution. The alarm would
wake the commuter five minutes earlier
than usual and alert them to problems
on the network. They could leave for
the station in time to catch an earlier
and more comfortable train, or they
might be told a driverless car could take
them to an alternative station….
Intelligent mobility means integrated
journeys, drawing on a wealth of data to
relieve the traveller from anxious
planning. But how do we go about
realising such a fundamental shift?
Understanding new infrastructure
requirements
Many of the benefits, particularly CAVs,
will rely on fast and secure wireless
connections. So, authorities need to put
the digital infrastructure in place to
support real-time interaction between
vehicles and the navigation and traffic
management systems. CAVs will need,
for example, to understand the curvature
of the road or the turning width. We
must also tackle the interoperability of
the systems and the technological
standards that will need to be met to
ensure that the opportunities provided
by CAVs are realised.
Intelligent mobility also gives us the
opportunity to re-envision our public
realm. CAVs, for example, need less
physical infrastructure than traditional
vehicles. Their safety benefits could
remove the need for crash barriers and
reduce the quantity of road signs. Over
time, this would give authorities the
chance to transform areas into new
public spaces.
Delivering benefits through the use
of big data
Until a decade ago, most of the world’s
data came from scientific, industrial
and administrative sources. Today,
an unprecedented volume is generated
daily through social media and
online shopping.
From a network-operator and
customer-experience perspective,
the next step is converting data into
something for the public good that is
available at the right time, and is readily
usable and digestible. Intelligent
mobility allows everyone to benefit
from big data. Important is establishing
the framework and practices around
safety by designing an end-to-end
customer experience. Naturally, issues
such as cyber security, privacy and
protection must be to the fore, with
guidance around data usage and
ownership established.
But we must understand that data is
valuable; and when gathered, analysed
and transformed into operational and
business intelligence, in real time,
it becomes invaluable.
Put people first
We have an extraordinary opportunity
to change the way people think about
transport and to deliver benefits that
will extend beyond the individual to
entire communities. Developing a
national policy that connects with
technological development while at the
same time provides an independent
guide on the adoption principles will be
fundamental to enable any sustainable
deployment. But we need leadership
to continue on our journey. Above all,
we must ask: Are decision makers,
designers, developers, service providers
and users on this journey together?
Transport | Spotlight | 13
12-13 Atkins adv.indd 13
11/11/2016 12:50:50
SOUTHERN RAIL
COMMUTERS IN CRISIS
“We must get
our railway
services back
on track”
MP for Lewes
Maria Caulfield
talks to Rohan
Banerjee about
the need to deliver
more reliable
public transport
T
he train journey from Lewes to
London Victoria is supposed to
take just over an hour. Persistently
poor services, however, have reduced
any such reality to a pipe dream; leading
many East Sussex commuters to
question whether the thousands they’ve
spent on season tickets are actually
worth it at all.
So far public anger has mainly been
directed at Govia Thameslink Railway
(GTR)’s Southern operation and
according to MP for Lewes Maria
Caulfield this seems a good place to start.
“Southern have a serious case to answer
in my mind,” she says. “They have been
antagonistic towards the rail unions and
to their own workers. They’ve steamrolled ahead with a number of initiatives
without any consideration of the knock
on effects they’ll have.” Caulfield, who
raised the concerns of her constituents in
Prime Minister’s Questions earlier this
month, isn’t wrong. Just as guards went
on strike in April over the introduction
of driver-only trains, Southern moved to
scrap employee perks such as free travel
for family members. Staff absence
through sickness soon doubled and
drivers stopped volunteering to work
overtime. In July, Southern withdrew 15
per cent of their total services until
further notice.
The impact on Lewes’s local economy,
Caulfield is quick to point out, is nothing
short of severe. “The whole sell of being
a commuter town is rooted in accessibility
and transport. People move to areas like
Lewes with that mind, so we have a
responsibility to deliver. Train services
simply haven’t been up to standard and
what should be just over an hour’s journey
is now often closer to three hours. Estate
agents are noting a fall in house prices,
because people are starting to explore
alternatives where the commute is closer
to what they were promised.”
Just as important as commuters being
able to travel to work, Caulfield adds, is
the ability of tourists to reach Lewes.
“Tourism is massively important to
Lewes and the surrounding areas.
We’ve got South Downs National Park,
two big fishing towns in Seaford and
New Haven; and if people can’t get
here, then they will start visiting places
where they can.”
GTR has claimed that more than
10,000 Southern cancellations between
the end of April and August were down
to industrial action. During these peak
tourist months, Caulfield reveals that
trade in Lewes went down roughly
20 per cent. She says gravely: “When
you’re a tourist area and your busiest
months are through the summer, and
you need that trade to keep you ticking
over through the winter, then having
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HUGH LLEWLYN
Transport | Spotlight | 15
14-16 Maria Caulfield.indd 15
11/11/2016 12:53:36
SOUTHERN RAIL
COMMUTERS IN CRISIS
Caulfield is
“not against
nationalisation
as a concept”
a blow like that is absolutely devastating.”
And there is a social dimension to be
considered too. With only one main
train line connecting Lewes to London,
Caulfield highlights the risk of isolation
that unreliable services present. She warns:
“In addition to the obvious problem of
not being able to reach work leading to
job loss, you’ve got to remember that
people have to use transport in their
everyday lives too. What about people
who have to use childcare services?
There’s an additional cost. If people are
constantly being hit by delays, they’re
spending less time at home with
their families.”
While Caulfield doesn’t hesitate to
criticise Southern’s performance, she
recognises that there are other culprits
who have contributed to commuters’
current malaise. “Southern have definitely
failed on the management side of things,
but Network Rail themselves have got
to accept some responsibility. The
old mainline is desperately in need of
modernisation and has lacked any real
infrastructure investment for about 20
years. As a result, we’re seeing constant
problems with the actual track, signal
failures, splintering and the like. The
problems associated with that lack of
investment and upkeep are now coming
home to roost and it’s not uncommon
that we’re seeing engineering works
overrun from a weekend onto the
following Monday morning.”
Similarly, Caulfield says, the unions
are not entirely blameless. “Although I
can understand their frustrations, I don’t
think the scale of industrial action by the
unions has helped. Over Christmas,
we’ve got planned strikes to contend
with which means that any sympathy
for their situation is going to be
undermined. The public who rely on the
train services to visit relatives over the
holidays or the people who work
anti-social hours are going to have find
alternative means of transport and that
contempt might eventually boil over.
At the end of the day, most people won’t
care who’s most at fault, they just want a
rail service that’s able to get them from
A to B without any hassle. Right now,
we don’t have that.”
So what is the solution? While
Caulfield admits she is “not against
nationalisation as a concept”, she feels
that that there are less drastic measures
that should be explored first. She believes
that Transport Secretary Chris Grayling’s
£20m investment pledge can be the
flagship of a new holistic approach.
“We certainly need to have more direct
investment from government in
modernising the railways and £20m
is a welcome boost.”
Caulfield cannot, though, hide her
disappointment in GTR’s performance
with Southern and is open to handing
over the franchise to another operator.
“When I look at their performance, I
just can’t say that I’ve been impressed
and there has to be a way of holding
them to account. They need to really look
at themselves.”
The same goes, she suggests, for the
unions. “Delivering a reliable rail service
really does need to be addressed as a
matter of urgency. I want the Prime
Minister and the secretary of state to
knock some heads together, get these
parties in a room and not let them out
until they’ve sorted out their problems
once and for all; and by that I mean
having a greater dialogue between the
unions and the managers. While I do
sympathise with how a lot of the new
ideas have been implemented, it’s
difficult to unpick that when there’s
nearly some sort of strike every week
now. Equally, it makes it very difficult if
we do consider changing operators,
because no-one wants to take that route
while there’s this level of disruption.”
As a long-term target, Caulfield notes
that something must also be done to
address the narrowness of the London
commute. “We are exploring a second
line – which admittedly could take years
– to beat that bottlenecked route into
Victoria. A second line leading towards
the Canary Wharf side of London would
not only open up a wealth of new
working opportunities, but could play
a huge role in limiting congestion as
people wouldn’t all be clamouring for
the same service.”
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ADVERTORIAL
Unshackling
the Midlands’
potential
As the UK prepares
for Brexit and its
new role in the
world, having
strength in our
regions is more
important than ever,
writes Midlands
Engine director
Maria Machancoses
IN ASSOCIATION WITH
A
thriving Midlands economy is
key to a buoyant and re-balanced
UK. If you look around the world
you will see that the most successful
countries are built on a network of
strong, well-connected regions. With a
population of 11.5m, 14 cities, 27
universities, two international airports
and a third of the UK’s manufacturing
jobs, the economic potential of the
Midlands is self-evident. With Brexit
on the horizon, it’s time we realised
that potential and lightened the load
on London.
Improving transport links to speed
up journey times not only from the
Midlands to the north and south, but
between the east and west of the region,
is vital for growing the economy and
increasing productivity. Research has
shown that faster journey times can
secure a £1 bn-a-year boost to the
regional economy, create 300,000
additional jobs and save businesses
nearly £500m. With this in mind a
collaboration of local enterprise
partnerships and local authorities in
the Midlands has committed to work
together under the banner of Midlands
Connect with the aim of establishing a
unified position on what strategic
transport initiatives are needed to
maximise the possible growth of the
area and the UK as a whole. Midlands
Connect serves as a platform for
engagement with government and is
in the process of drawing up a long-term
transport strategy that will set out the
investment in infrastructure needed
to deliver those faster journeys and
secure the maximum benefits possible
from HS2 which will have four stations
serving the region.
Many of the UK’s most prominent
enterprises and world-class research
centres are located in the Midlands.
Strategic industrial sites with an export
vocation include aerospace, automotive
and advanced engineering as well as
service industries such as banking and
insurance. The concentration of specialised
manufacturing is a key strength of the
Midlands’ economy with the sector
employing 12 per cent of the workforce
- higher than the national average. The
clustering of Jaguar Land Rover, JCB
and Rolls Royce along important
corridors fosters specialisation, reduces
supply chain costs and makes for a more
dynamic labour market.
With 90 per cent of all UK businesses
based within four hours of the Midlands,
the area is a prime location for logistics
sites, corridors and interchanges. The
presence of freight infrastructure
benefits local business by providing
access to both national and international
markets. Exports from the Midlands
rose by 38 per cent between 2010 and
2013, outperforming the 15 per cent
increase in UK exports as a whole.
Devolving more transport powers
to the region by putting Midlands
Connect on to a statutory footing as a
sub-national transport body, can help
put more of the decision-making
process in the hands of local people
with an informed knowledge of the
area’s needs. For too long, the UK
has been over-reliant on London; the
Midlands offers a ready-made
supplement to the capital and subsequent
solution to this dependency.
It is not about detracting from
London, which has set the bar high for
what cities should aim to emulate, but
it is about rebalancing the distribution
of our businesses and industries. That
our best and brightest graduates are
almost invariably drawn down south
is counterproductive for the rest of the
country. So the work to harness the
potential of our regional economies
has begun in earnest and the Midlands
Engine is leading the way.
Transport | Spotlight | 17
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TECHNOLOGY
THE WORLD’S BIGGEST AIRCRAFT
A new type of aircraft, built by
a British company, could soon
deliver cheap, highly efficient, lowcarbon transport with little need for
infrastructure. Will Dunn speaks to
Hybrid Air Vehicles’ Chris Daniels
about the new age of airships
The biggest
idea in
aviation
I
n architectural terms the village of
Shortstown, on the outskirts of
Bedford, is unremarkable but for a
pair of gigantic green buildings, each
more than 240m long and 50m high.
These are the buildings of the former
Cardington Royal Airship Works, built
in 1915 to house the huge R101 airships
that the Air Ministry intended to use as
sky-going liners that would take
passengers to India, Egypt and Canada in
peacetime, and to carry troops and
vehicles in times of war. The age of the
great airships came to an end in the 1930s
with a series of high-profile crashes, most
notably the Hindenburg disaster, and the
sheds fell into disrepair, left behind by
the accelerating forces of war, technology
and the jet age. The sheds found new life
as film studios – at five times the size of
the largest sound stage, they were the
only buildings large enough to house
Christopher Nolan’s sets for Inception
and The Dark Knight Rises – but in recent
years, lorries carrying very large gas tanks
have once more begun to visit
Cardington. In the left-hand shed,
behind a pair of doors that would loom
over a 10-storey building, a British
company has built the world’s largest
aircraft: the Airlander 10.
“There has been a niche British airship
business for about 40 years,” explains
Chris Daniels of Hybrid Air Vehicles,
maker of the Airlander. “For most of that
time it was driven by one man, an
engineer called Roger Monk.”
For engineers, airships have a
particular fascination: part aircraft, part
architecture, their flight depends on the
calculable principle of buoyancy rather
than the brute force of thrust. The great
British engineer Barnes Wallace was an
airship engineer – he worked on the giant
R101s at Cardington – and when he had
finished his work on the bouncing bombs
that proved so decisive in the Second
World War, Wallace continued to think
about how the airship might fly once more.
“The story goes that Roger Monk, in
his 20s, met Barnes Wallace,” says Daniels,
“and asked him why airships hadn’t
happened. Barnes Wallace went through
five key technical issues – materials
technology, testing, having vectoring
turning engines, and so on – and Roger
decided that he would solve all of those
issues. And that’s what he did.”
Monk’s work drew him to a type of
airship that, unlike the blimps of the
1930s was actually heavier than air
– “what we call hybrids: airships with a
significant proportion of aerodynamic
lift. It’s a concept that people have played
around with for a century or more, but
no-one had really done anything with it,
because there wasn’t the computer
power to do the modelling, nor the
materials technology to make the hull.
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The 92-metre-long
Airlander cruises at
148km/hr and can fly
non-stop for five days
It is 30 per cent
longer than
the largest
passenger jet
But both of those have come to the fore
in the last 10-20 years.”
The Airlander might have remained an
engineering hypothesis, however, had it
not been for the American military,
which saw the idea’s potential for use as
a surveillance platform in Afghanistan.
“In 2010, this British company, which
was working out of a Portakabin on the
outskirts of Bedford, won a $500m
contract for the US Army against
Lockheed Martin.”
The army’s enthusiasm did not last
long – “the programme was cancelled
just after its first flight,” says Daniels,
“due to budget cuts” – but he says that
it was enough to get HAV to a prototype.
After the contract ended, “we bought the
aircraft back from the US. We maintained
all the intellectual property, and we
started, at the beginning of 2013,
to redevelop, reconstruct and make
a better one.”
The result, hidden in the Cardington
shed, is an aircraft that is almost 30 per
cent longer than the Airbus A380, the
world’s largest passenger jet. The
Airlander 10 is a more flattened ovoid
than the blimps of old, less sleekly
bullet-like, more carefully modelled
for airflow.
“In effect,” says Daniels, “It’s a very
light flying wing. Airships of old floated,
and that’s how they generated their lift.
The trouble with that is, it makes them
very susceptible to wind and weather
conditions. It also made them very
difficult to land. We’ve made an airship
that’s a little heavier than air, so that it
always naturally sinks to the ground,
but it gets lift from being wing-shaped as soon as there’s more than about
20mph of wind flowing over it, either
from the engines pushing it forward or
because it’s heading into the wind, it
generates enough lift to counteract
Transport | Spotlight | 19
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TECHNOLOGY
THE WORLD’S BIGGEST AIRCRAFT
the weight of the aircraft.”
Despite the Airlander’s huge size,
this weight is trivial in comparison with a
jet. “On the ground, it weighs between
one and 10 tonnes, depending on the
buoyancy. A 747 weighs between 100 and
200 tonnes, depending on how fully
loaded it is. Obviously, you need a lot
more energy to get something that weighs
100 times as much off the ground.”
Inside the Airlander’s immense bulbs
of laminated fabric are the 38,000 cubic
metres of space that are its most
significant source of lift. “A cubic metre
of helium, at atmospheric pressure, lifts
about a kilo” explains Daniels. “If you
want to make an airship in your back
yard, that’s a useful thing to know. So we
have a lifting power of about 38,000
kilos and about 20,000kg of weight – the
engines, the hull material, and so on. With
about 6-10,000 cubic metres of air, that
leaves enough to lift about 10 tonnes.”
A 10-tonne payload is only the
beginning. This, the largest aircraft in the
world, is the smallest Airlander that HAV
will ever make. “We have another on the
drawing board that will carry 50 tonnes.
What we’re never going to do is make
them smaller. They will only get bigger.”
As with other airships, the bigger the
Airlander, the more efficient it is. The
current model is already vastly more
efficient at getting weight airborne than a
jet – the four v8 engines are of the kind
used by light aircraft, and have been
specially adapted to provide still more
efficiency – but HAV’s long-term aim is
to make the Airlander the first zerocarbon aircraft.
“We’ll take a staged process to electric
engines. Initially we’d have diesel engines
at the rear and electric engines at the front,
and take off with all four, which works
from a regulatory perspective and gives
us a power boost. Then we’d switch off
the rear engines, run off the electrics in
the air, and have the diesel engines as
backup. The next stage would be to go
all-electric, with a big bunch of batteries.
Stage three would be to cover the hull
with thin-film solar panels, and then
you’ve got an aircraft that can fly forever.”
“That’s quite a few years away,”
Daniels acknowledges, but he points out
that “a zero-carbon aircraft has to be the
future. The civilian aerospace industry at
the moment is somewhere between four
and five per cent of global carbon
emissions. That percentage is going to go
up, even the aircraft are getting more
efficient, because more people are using
them. It’s going to become a big political
issue. You cannot get any plane that
works on what’s currently normal in
aerodynamics to the level of efficiency
where you’re massively reducing carbon.”
Reducing carbon is not the only benefit
of being so fuel-efficient. It’s also much,
much cheaper: a 747 typically goes
through around four litres of jet fuel per
second, and fuel makes up around 30 per
cent of the operating costs of most
airlines. Any technology that can
significantly reduce fuel dependence has
huge gains to offer. Daniels says the fact
that the Airlander doesn’t need an airport
means low-cost, short-haul flights will
become a target for HAV: “The success of
Eurostar comes from the fact that you’re
not schlepping out to Heathrow, having
to arrive two hours before your flight,
then getting a train into Paris at the other
end. Your total journey time is much
quicker. If you take an average journey
time to Amsterdam, it’s four hours. But if
I can take off from, say, the roof of St
Pancras, or from the Thames, and I can
fly straight to the stretch of water behind
Amsterdam central station – if I can do
that in two hours, people are going to use
that service, because it’s a lot quicker.
In effect, it’s a portable Eurostar service.”
The Airlander is also versatile in
regulatory terms – “we fly in general
aviation space, below the standard air
corridors, so we can fly wherever we
want” – and there’s no need to build a
new airport for a new route to be opened
up. All that’s needed is passengers.
“Say I’m in Norwich, and I want to go
to Liverpool,” Daniels suggests. “Given
the way that transport works in the UK,
with all transport radiating from the
capital, it takes a really long time to make
this short journey.” (Although it’s about
20 | Spotlight | Transport
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It could take
off from the St
Pancras roof,
or the Thames
190 miles by air, it’s a 255-mile drive, five
hours by car or train.) “With modern
technology, however, if there are enough
people who want to make that journey,
people could use an app to book seats
and once the flight was, say, 80 per cent
full, it would become profitable for the
operator to run the flight from Norwich
to Liverpool on a given date. Because
you don’t need an airport, it becomes a
kind of Uber service in the air.”
The first Airlander passengers,
however, are likely to be tourists.
“Initially, this will be for some sort of
experience tourism, people just getting
up and flying because people just want
to fly around in this amazing thing,
seeing the views, opening the windows;
experience flights over Machu Picchu,
safaris, dining flights over Paris or London.”
Engineering, too, could make use of
the Airlander: “The oil and gas industry
is now moving into very deep offshore
drilling, beyond the range of most
helicopters. We can do that – and there
are lots of other areas in which we could
move a number of people over some
rough terrain or a hazard. We can land
on water or sand, and we’ll be able to
land vertically in anywhere that has
200m-300m of flattish space.”
All this is possible, but launching a new
form of air transport will be difficult. The
technical challenges are by no means
overcome, and the Airlander 10’s most
recent flight ended in what Daniels calls
a “heavy landing”. “We need to train for
a new set of procedures,” he explains,
“because everything we’re doing is new.
The aircraft will be ready to fly again very
soon, but we want to make sure the
people are ready, too. We’re in a situation
now where the aircraft is actually slightly
ahead of the people.”
The main challenge HAV faces,
however, is financial. “One of the
problems I’ve seen in industry is that
large companies have the money and
wherewithal to influence both the
government directly and the trade
bodies. Our trade bodies represent us,
but they represent the big boys more.
The government needs to enable level
playing fields.”
Only with a level playing field, says
Daniels, will next-generation transport
technologies really take off. “There is
a megatrend to start looking at new ideas,
and especially green alternatives, but
it’s also true that the only reason electric
cars are taking off is because the
governments of the world have
supported the infrastructure for them.
So much of what the government does,
and what it taxes, fundamentally
influences the behaviour of people and
of companies. These new industries
need investment.”
Ultimately, though, he is confident
that the Airlander will succeed, “because
we don’t allow the innovation to take
over completely. We have a group
of pragmatic people who mirror an
innovative group of engineers, and
we strike a very good balance between
business and innovation.”
If Daniels is right, we will once more
see huge airships floating through the
skies above London, bringing with them
a new type of journey.
Transport | Spotlight | 21
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TRANSPORT PROVISION
THE SCHOOL RUN
The school
run must
gather pace
Inadequate school
transport causes
congestion, air
pollution and
social isolation.
Rohan Banerjee
spoke to the
Campaign for
Better Transport
and Transport
for London about
what needs
to change
T
he law in England states that a
person aged between 16 and 18
must be in full-time education or
training, but the harsh reality of public
transport cuts over the last decade have
made adhering to that rule extremely
difficult for those in rural areas.
According to the Campaign for Better
Transport (CBT), over 300,000 children
and 50,000 sixth form or college
students have lost their access to public
transport since 2008 – the equivalent of
10,000 single decker buses per day. The
same research found that two-thirds of
local authorities no longer provide any
free bus or train services to people over
the age of 16, and the loss of school
transport is estimated to have resulted
in more than 100 million additional car
journeys each year.
CBT Campaigns and Outreach
Coordinator Lianna Etkind paints a grim
picture: “I think what it comes down
to is that there have been so many cuts
to local government and local authorities
have extremely squeezed budgets as a
result. Many of them have decided to
cut back on school transport to respond
to this, right back to the statutory
minimum, without considering the
knock-on effect, not only for children
and their families, but also for people
who don’t have children who will still
have to put up with the increased
congestion in the area.”
Aside from the heightened risk of air
pollution, Etkind adds that the lack of
public transport provision is removing
any element of choice for parents when
it comes to deciding what school or
college their child attends. “For many
parents, the decision whether to work or
take their children to school is becoming
a distinct standoff. In some instances,
they also have to be more restrictive in
choosing what school or college they can
realistically reach nearby.”
Etkind is quick to point out that the
limited public transport services can also
contribute to enervating social mobility.
“We’ve seen case studies where young
people have managed to get onto
22 | Spotlight | Transport
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Over 350,000
students have
lost transport
since 2008
prestigious internships and placements,
but haven’t been able to get to the
companies on time because the buses in
their local areas didn’t start running until
after they were meant
to have arrived at work. Likewise, a bus
service finishing too early has meant that
some students miss out on after school
or extracurricular clubs and we all know
how important these can be in terms
of UCAS points and accessing the
top universities.”
Congestion, Etkind continues, also
carries a considerable risk to people’s
safety: “Very often in rural areas, the
walking route is just not safe and people
having to cross major roads or walk
through the countryside in the dark are
going to be in real danger. Equally, the
more cars you have on narrow roads, the
more likely you are to see collisions.”
So, what does CBT recommend?
Etkind suggests that the government
extending statutory school and transport
provision up to the age of 18 and a
consistent national concessionary fares
scheme for young people would be a
good start. Sustained cuts, she warns,
will only serve to compound myriad
social problems, beyond the education
sphere – such as isolating rural citizens –
and increased car usage will not only
ramp up pollution levels but render
many transport operators commercially
unviable. The current 16-25 rail card,
she highlights, is not permissible to
use during peak hours, which is exactly
when young people need to use their
discounts the most.
While Etkind concedes that “inherent
limitations in terms of population
densities,” mean it is unrealistic for rural
areas to ape the frequency of public
transport in London, she wants to
see a concentrated effort to improve the
quality and reliability of what services
are on offer. “The argument that people
won’t use public transport anyway falls
a little flat. Right now, there simply isn’t
a sufficient or affordable service for them
to use; if it improves, then we are likely
to see a greater willing from students and
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TRANSPORT PROVISION
THE SCHOOL RUN
“Young people
find it more
enjoyable than
being ferried
in a car”
the wider public alike.”
It is important to realise, however, that
London – though considerably better
equipped to respond to public transport
demands – is not immune to many of the
challenges that Etkind identifies. In the
city, the school run is similarly
undermined by personal car journeys,
adding to the problem of inner-city air
pollution. Clare Mulholland, Schools and
Young People Programme Manager at
Transport for London (TfL), is committed
to combatting congestion in the capital.
So, what does she think are the causes
behind it? “A lot of parents have a
perception that it’s safer and it’s a choice
of comfort and convenience, but we’re
aiming to challenge perceptions around
time, because often it can be as quick to
walk or take public transport.”
Using a Zip Oyster photo card, 16- to
18-year-olds in London can travel at a half
adult rate on all TfL services, while 11- to
15-year-olds can travel for free on buses
and at half price on the tube. Children
between the ages of five and 10 are
exempt from TfL fares completely.
Although Mulholland is proud of the
public transport London has to offer
– “we do want people to have a choice” –
she is fully aware of the importance of
reducing “needless” traffic on the roads.
Donna Harman, Project Manager for
TfL’s STARS programme, agrees.
“STARS is TfL’s accreditation scheme
for schools and colleges. It’s designed
to encourage young Londoners to travel
sustainably, actively, responsibly and
safely by championing active travel
behaviours like walking and cycling.
It aims to improve pupils’ wellbeing
as well as reducing congestion at the
school gates and improving road safety
and air quality.”
As much as anything else, Mulholland
says, travelling to school is a social
experience while growing up. “I think
there is something symbolic about it and
being independent, young people taking
those journeys to school with their
friends, talking on the way, are going to
find it more enjoyable than simply being
ferried from A to B in a car.”
Ultimately, The Education Act of 1944
introduced compulsory secondary
education and since then local authorities
have had a responsibility to ensure that
students can access schools, regardless
of their means or place of residence.
A commitment to this must remain
a priority, therefore, for both rural and
urban areas.
SHUTTERSTOCK / DARIUSZ GORA
Cuts to local
government have
left many without
access to their first
choice of school
24 | Spotlight | Transport
22-24 School transport.indd 24
11/11/2016 12:59:25
ADVERTORIAL
Smart energy
efficiency can
be simple
Dr Richard Bull,
reader in Energy and
Behaviour Change at
IESD, De Montfort
University Leicester,
says that any and
all energy saving
initiatives must be
designed with the
involvement of the
end-user
IN ASSOCIATION WITH
T
he majority of the world’s
population now live in cities and
contribute more than two-thirds
of global carbon emissions. If countries
like the UK are to meet their challenging
carbon reduction targets - 80 per cent
by 2050 - then how our cities are
governed and managed to maximize
energy efficiency is vital.
Most visions of ‘smart cities’ revolve
around increased ICT efficiency through
what has become known as the digital
economy. Smart cities offer a seemingly
utopian vision of urban integration,
efficiency and subsequent carbon
reductions. So, what might this look
like in practice and how can we ensure
people are receptive to these changes?
Research shows the best approach
is to involve citizens from the outset.
Too often there is a risk of ‘smart’
seeking maximum technical
efficiencies without giving enough
consideration to the end-users.
De Montfort University Leicester
(DMU) has been at the forefront
of a range of research into the idea
of the smart city and in particular
in the analysis of user responses
to innovation. In this way we can
learn the factors which will not only
make our smart cities more efficient,
but which will work for the citizens
who live in them. Our work
encompasses the domestic sector –
from analysing the efficacy of
retrofitting older housing stock with
energy-saving measures to working
on the UK’s first zero-carbon solar
house which produces its own energy
– and our work spaces. Current projects
include work in the public sector
to reduce energy demand by using
social media tools to engage staff,
using creative visualisations to
show the environmental impact
of their activities.
Researchers from the Institute for
Energy and Sustainable Development
(IESD) at DMU were able to test
the acceptability of smart recharging
through participation in the
My Electric Avenue project. The
anticipated uptake of electric vehicles
(EVs) poses serious questions for the
electricity grid, which could become
overwhelmed with demand as
numerous EVs require recharging.
However, rather than allowing
unrestrained charging, EV users can
be incentivised to recharge at times
that improve the grid’s efficiency
and its carbon footprint – so called
‘smart’ recharging.
Supported by Ofgem’s Low Carbon
Networks Fund, this project included
collaborators from the power sector,
a leading EV manufacturer and
related service providers, plus
academic research teams. It proved that
smart recharging can be implemented
with minimal intervention bythe
user, because most EVs were charged
overnight at home.
Assuming preferential electricity
tariffs can make such behaviour
the norm, the smart charging of EVs
can remove the threat of network
overload and, perhaps more
importantly, opens up vast potential
for demand-shaping to balance
the variable or inflexible output
of low-carbon generators.
There is enormous potential for
citizens to play a much greater role
in designing smart cities but it
requires a shift in behaviour and
attitude. Incentivised tariffs, peer
pressure and engaging social
influencers should be part of the mix
considered for innovative smart city
developments.
Unless the politicians and businesses
feel like citizens actually care, they
may not take these issues seriously.
Transport | Spotlight | 25
25 De Montfort adv.indd 25
11/11/2016 13:00:32
ENVIRONMENTAL LAW
TRANSPORT EMISSIONS
Legal NGO ClientEarth has
defeated the government in court
twice in the last 18 months on air
pollution. James Thornton, their
CEO, explains why this is a vitally
important issue
“Air pollution is
now the second
biggest threat
to public health”
I
magine a country where people are
being poisoned by the air they
breathe. Imagine the outcry when it
becomes clear that thousands of deaths
each year are preventable. And imagine
the government loses twice in court
while refusing to do anything about it.
Welcome to the UK.
These are the circumstances in which
we find ourselves in 2016. Why does the
government continue to break the law
while people die?
Air pollution from our buses, taxis
and cars is responsible for 40,000
premature deaths a year across the
country. If 40,000 people a year in the
UK died from cholera, wouldn’t the
government do something?
Every year, heart attacks and strokes
are triggered, lung growth in children
stunted and respiratory conditions
aggravated. Air pollution is now the
second biggest threat to public health
after smoking.
Instead of confronting the problem
the government hopes no one will
notice. This is why ClientEarth took
the government to court, and beat
them this month.
Cleaning the air isn’t rocket science.
Not doing so is unacceptable political
behaviour. And it’s illegal.
Our recent case is the second time
the government has lost on air pollution
in the last two years. In April 2015,
ClientEarth won a Supreme Court
injunction against the government.
It ordered ministers to come up with a
plan to bring air pollution down within
legal limits as soon as possible. The plans
26 | Spotlight | Transport
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11/11/2016 13:01:53
SHUTTERSTOCK / IR STONE
The supreme
court called it
a public health
emergency
they produced were so poor that ClientEarth
took the government back to the High
Court to enforce the injunction.
In a damning indictment of ministers’
inaction on dangerous air pollution, Mr
Justice Garnham agreed with ClientEarth
that the Environment Secretary had
failed to take measures that would bring
the UK into compliance with the law “as
soon as possible” and said that ministers
knew that they were using overly
optimistic pollution modelling. Put
simply, they were cooking the results,
knew it, and have been found out.
The government has decided not to
appeal. That is a good thing because the
problem is even worse than the court
rulings suggest. Britain is not just above
legal limits for nitrogen dioxide, as the
court held. It is also above the limits set
by the World Health Organisation for
particulate matter, microscopic particles
small enough to penetrate deep into
the lungs, traces of which were recently
found in the brain tissue of people
from Manchester. London is a bad place
to breathe, but the capital is not unique.
Residents in one in four English local
authorities were breathing unlawfully
high levels of nitrogen dioxide in 2015.
The Supreme Court called our toxic
air a public health emergency. So
why is the government so neglectful?
A reason some give is the cost to
the economy and the Treasury and
the impact on business, hauliers
and motorists.
But the economic argument cuts the
other way. As well as harming people’s
health there is also a substantial
economic and societal harm from air
pollution. Defra’s own analysis suggests
that the cost to the UK economy from
early deaths by air pollution is £27.5bn
every year.
Even the government admits their
current inadequate air quality plans
would have a net benefit of £555m over
ten years. Imagine the economic gains of
doing this properly. A smart chancellor
would invest in clean air.
So what should the government be
doing? Firstly, take immediate action
and bring in a national network of Clean
Air Zones. These must prevent the worst
polluting vehicles from entering our
towns and city centres.
We also need a scheme to retrofit
buses and heavy goods vehicles to make
them comply with legal emissions limits.
In addition, a diesel scrappage scheme,
part-funded by the car industry, to fund
low emission vehicles and alternatives
to car use.
Other solutions should run in tandem:
a clean public transport system and a
car labelling scheme so that motorists
know that the cars they buy comply
with emissions limits in the real world.
Call it the Volkswagen sticker.
That would be a start. The long-term
goal must be to move to zero-emissions
vehicles as soon as possible. The UK
should seize this opportunity. We could
Transport | Spotlight | 27
26-28 Air Pollution.indd 27
11/11/2016 13:01:56
ENVIRONMENTAL LAW
TRANSPORT EMISSIONS
“Electric
cars are four
times more
efficient”
become a leader in sustainable transport,
creating the solutions that other countries
will also need.
The technology exists and the private
sector is ready. Some car companies
are doing the right thing. Toyota says
that almost all of its vehicles will be
emissions-free by 2050. Electric cars
are four times more efficient and vastly
cleaner than petrol or diesel.
Uptake is still low, but the government
can change that with tax incentives and
investment in electric charging stations.
In Norway, which has already introduced
those policies, electric or hybrid cars
enjoy a market share of 25 per cent.
Plenty of progressive policies such
as car sharing have been swiftly adopted
and integrated by other European
countries. By integrating additional
modes of transport into their cities’
public network, journeys have become
shorter, faster and more efficient,
reducing emissions and traffic.
In the US, President Obama has seized
on electric vehicles as a tool for
rebuilding American’s crumbling car
industry while reducing both air
pollution and carbon emissions. He
has now spent two terms promoting
the technology, investing in R&D,
and providing rebates to push
automakers and consumers closer to
the age of electricity.
Just this month, the Obama
administration announced that the US
will create 48 electric vehicle corridors
over 25,000 miles of highway and
through 35 states, in which there will
be a charging point available at least
every 50 miles. You will be able to drive
comfortably from one end of the country
to the other in your electric car. This is
not a bad legacy.
Electric vehicles need not be the
preserve of the rich either. A recently
introduced pilot program in California
has incentives aimed at getting old
polluting vehicles off the roads while
putting low-income drivers behind the
wheels of clean cars.
The program from CARB (California
Air Resources Board) works by
“providing increasingly larger cash
payments for the lowest-income families
to move up to the very cleanest cars.”
As Wards Auto recently reported,
in the right set of circumstances, it
is possible for low-income motorists
to “end up driving off with a free EV.”
What’s more, Green Car Reports noted:
“The program doesn’t even require
you to buy a replacement car. Instead,
depending on your income level, you
could, in return, get public transit passes
worth between $2,500 and $4,500.”
So let’s think creatively. If we want
to improve air quality and reduce traffic
in the UK, these are the kinds of
forward-thinking policies we need.
We are entering an age of optimisation,
where you can plan a route, get a meal
or hire a car outside your door at the
click of your smartphone. Harnessing
the power of technology is essential if
we want to keep our country moving
and breathing.
The policy solutions to solving our
clean air crisis will benefit business.
We need to encourage both a residential
and a commercial behavioural shift
towards greener ways of getting
around and doing business. This will
not only benefit human health but also
create economic opportunities for
businesses that develop the new
products and services.
We know we can do this. We’ve led
the way before. The Clean Air Act of
1956 was a response to the great smogs of
the 1950s. That law was globally leading,
and saved thousands of lives by getting
rid of belching factories from towns
and cities.
Now car exhaust pipes have
supplanted industrial chimneys and
the air is dirty again. Radical action is
needed. We need a new Clean Air Act
for our times.
The last Clean Air Act was held up for
years by vested interests. Our nation’s
health must triumph today as it did then
in 1956.
This time the government must move
faster. There is no excuse. The economic
opportunities are staring us in the face.
We know what is needed. All we lack is
the political will.
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ADVERTORIAL
We must end
the reign of
King Car
Claire Haigh,
chief executive of
Greener Journeys,
says that addressing
the dominance of
the car is key to
solving Britain's
congestion crisis
IN ASSOCIATION WITH
B
ritain is suffering from a
national congestion crisis.
Unless we find a way to break
the hold of King Car, any talk of a low
carbon, sustainable transport future
will remain just that. Last year saw the
number of cars on English roads increase
to a staggering 25.8m vehicles. As more
cars clog up our roads, the government
predicts that traffic will have grown by
a further 55 per cent by 2040.
The effect is clear. Research by
Greener Journeys this year revealed
that average bus speeds have fallen
below 10mph in the UK’s busiest cities.
Buses, which carry more commuters
than all other forms of public transport
combined, are seeing their journey
times increase by 10 per cent each
decade. As buses slow down and journey
times become less reliable, fewer and
fewer people choose to use them.
According to the latest figures from the
government, 4.5bn bus journeys were
made in the year to June 2016 – a 2.7
per cent fall since the year before.
The car, and the congestion it causes,
is killing the bus sector and damaging
the wider economy. Every year that
bus journey times continue to increase
costs an estimated 5,000 jobs.
And it’s damaging our health too.
Research by Lancaster University
revealed that toxic nanoparticles from
car exhausts have been discovered in
“abundant quantities” in human brains
leading to an increased risk of
Alzheimer’s Disease. Air pollution
even endangers lives on the roads.
Scientists at the London School of
Economics linked high levels of
pollution to increased incidence of road
accidents, as drivers found themselves
distracted or their judgement impaired
by smog.
There are, however, some glimmers
of hope. There is growing political
support for the workplace parking levy,
with cities such as Oxford and
Cambridge now considering following
Nottingham’s lead. Sadiq Khan's plans
for tackling air pollution in London
with charges for high polluting
vehicles and an extended Ultra-Low
Emissions Zone are encouraging.
In parliament, debate on the Bus
Services Bill has highlighted the effect
of congestion, and Greener Journeys
is calling for the Bill to provide guidance
encouraging local authorities and bus
operators to set average speed targets.
Still, the government needs to take
action to reduce car use. That means
unpopular policy measures to make
it less convenient and more expensive
for people to drive. The cheap cost of
private motoring is drawing people
away from public transport. As a
first step, government should increase
fuel duty. The motoring lobby will
oppose such measures, of course, but
without intervention, a clean,
sustainable transport future cannot
be achieved.
Our latest report, The Value of the Bus
to Society, shows that the bus has to be
part of the answer. It lays bare the clear
link between an improvement in local
bus connectivity and a reduction in
social deprivation. For example, a 10
per cent improvement in local bus
service connectivity in the most
deprived wards in the country could
result in almost 10,000 more people
in work.
From autonomous vehicles to
inter-modal travel, smart-ticketing
to networked cities, the transport
community finally has the expertise
to create an efficient network. But
unless we address the dominance of the
car, radical change will remain elusive
and we will find ourselves gridlocked.
For more information, visit
www.greenerjourneys.com
Transport | Spotlight | 29
29 Greener Journeys adv.indd 29
11/11/2016 13:02:50
ADVERTORIAL
Kick-starting
an industrial
strategy
Jason Millett,
COO for Major
Programmes and
Infrastructure at
Mace, wants to see
a more cohesive
plan for locally-led
transport projects
IN ASSOCIATION WITH
T
he details of Theresa May's
industrial strategy are slowly
becoming apparent, but the
overarching policy is already the lens
through which her team view an
increasing number of decisions, from
Heathrow expansion to regional
devolution. So, what should this
strategy involve?
The industrial strategy is already
being positioned by ministers as the
driving force behind a more balanced
economy, in which every region of the
UK is equipped to identify and
support the sectors that will best drive
local growth. This, however, lends
itself to a bottom-up, locally-led
strategy, and has created debate over
whether central government can
create a coherent industrial strategy
in this space at all.
In our view, the thrust of a modern
industrial strategy has to be local and
locally differentiated. Regional
businesses and political leaders are far
better placed than central government
to understand the particular sectors
that will drive growth and jobs in their
areas, and thus how to form a cohesive
strategy with local universities and
local enterprise partnerships.
Central government’s role should
be to focus on the bigger picture: how
to achieve harmony and forethought
in terms of the national policies and
projects that hang different regional
strategies together. In essence, how to
better connect regional economies to
one another and in a post-Brexit
world, also to new international
markets. The Prime Minister for
instance travelled to India last month
and part of any trade deal done there
needed to reflect an industrial
strategy that translates investment
into real jobs and growth in local
towns and cities, whilst also
promoting and developing our
successful infrastructure design
and delivery skills.
In his Autumn Statement, the
Chancellor's commitment to invest
in motorway and trunk road upgrades
was welcome. Smaller regional
projects are faster to deliver than the
major infrastructure schemes such
as HS2 or Crossrail 2, but can bring
significant local benefits while
providing a stronger stimulus to the
wider economy. The key, of course, is
getting the balance right between the
two. Projects of the size of HS2 are
crucial to speeding up connections
between and within our regions, as
well as focusing regional development
on national as well as local need.
Delivering on airport expansion is also
essential if we are to connect regional
jobs to the new growth markets of the
wider world.
While such big-ticket projects are
already in development, what really
makes the National Productivity
Investment Fund part of an effective
industrial strategy is support for the
essential down-track connectivity that
spreads the economic benefits of such
projects. On HS2, we are only just
starting to look at the smaller onward
connections from the main route could
leverage the project’s value further at
a local level. A recent report published
by HS2 provided some excellent case
studies from the north of England –
such as Preston being able to add over
£3m to its local economy each year
due to its proximity to the route.
The government has made its
commitment to HS2 clear, but as
with so many of these major
infrastructure projects, without
connecting it to a localised, integrated
plan, the real transformative value
won’t be felt by the very communities
it aims to enhance.
30 | Spotlight | Transport
30 Mace adv.indd 30
30/11/2016 16:07:53
ADVERTORIAL
The subscription
culture: a new
way to travel
Steve Cassidy,
managing director,
Viaqqio (part of ESP
Group), says the
business models of
Spotify and Netflix
can inform the
future of travel
IN ASSOCIATION WITH
B
rits have always traditionally
been focused on owning things
– cars, houses – but the focus on
‘ownership’ is on its way out, and the
subscription economy is on the rise.
Non-ownership culture has changed
the way people interact not only with
businesses, but with their surroundings.
At the heart of this shift is a willingness
in people to subscribe to the outcomes
they want, when they want them,
without buying them outright.
People and their expectations have
changed drastically. On-demand
services such as Spotify, Netflix and
Amazon Prime have created new
business models not just in the
consumption of entertainment, but
almost every aspect of life, and
transport will not be missed out.
We are now seeing a shift towards
‘Mobility as a Service’ (MaaS), which is
made possible by two trends. Firstly,
the rise of the smartphone, which has
changed the way people consume
information relating to their journey.
Real-time traffic updates, delay
notifications, virtual tickets, platform
alterations and intelligent journey
planners mean transport bodies are
able to offer personalised, journeycritical information to everyone.
Secondly, the generational shift to
the sharing economy of Airbnb and
BlaBlaCar, which allow people to share
or lend fixed assets with others. The
millennial traveller sees transport
simply as another part of life which
should be accessible as something used
rather than owned.
The public transport industry is
increasingly looking to technology to
attract and retain customers, through
more attractive websites, apps and
ticketing. But the seismic shift towards
subscription means that, now more
than ever, the industry needs to start
putting real user needs at the heart of
service design . Transport is a lifestyle
product; it shapes the lives of people
all round the country, and it is
therefore critical that their needs are
put first. At ESP Group, we focus on
life transitions people face in order to
develop integrated services to achieve
user outcomes and deliver real value.
One example is our Car Freedom
service, currently being trailed in
Birmingham with the support of
Transport for the West Midlands.
When people receive an older person’s
bus pass, they look to use the car less,
and indeed as people age the incidence
of giving up their car increases. Car
Freedom as a service, co-designed with
older people, offers support to make
this transition as smooth as possible.
Another example is our involvement
in the Pick&Mix project, Scotland’s
first ever MaaS application. The
platform is being co-designed by
young people, for young people, to
create a mobility service which
removes the barriers they perceive to
travel. Their involvement in the
development provides invaluable
insight into what matters most to
those using it.
The transport industry is going
places, but it is crucial that it works
collaboratively and puts the user at the
heart of every journey to really
flourish. As the nation’s transport
authorities start to think with the user
at the centre, they will begin to realise
they are able to grow the public
transport industry. What mobility
service would provide such clear value
to a user that they would subscribe
immediately – forgoing the car?
Once the industry starts addressing
this question, it will allow it to not
only increase revenue but to provide
a new form of customer service, and
revolutionise the industry.
Transport | Spotlight | 31
31 ESP.indd 31
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